Ws have received intelligence by telegraph that England hus refused to sond a representative to the Congress to be held to consider the question of a hi-metallic currency. It was perfectly clear from the very first that England could never allow her standard to be tampered with, but it did not appear to be absolutely impossible that some good might come of a Conference on a subject which is really of the highest importance, It may be well to state distinctly what is the position of England at present and what has been her position in modern times in this question of coinage. In ancient times, the regulations regarding money were somewhat confused. In the year 1717, at which date both gold and silver were legal tenders, the value of the guinea was declared to be twenty-one silver shillings. bad previously pence, but this was so much above its value that the silver was leaving the country. It turned out that twenty-one shillings was a little too high, (only about one and two-thirds per cout, it is trae), still this trifling difference between the value of silver coin and silver bullion was sufficient to make it impossible to keep good silver coin in the country during the next hundred years. A certain amount gradually found its way into circulation, often after having undergone some process of sweating, but the bulk of the new coin was exported, in spite of Inws against it, and the silver currency of the country was debased extent that the present generation could hardly credit, All this time Engluad was a country practically with a gold standard, Silver was legal tender but at such a rate that it was cheaper to pay in gold, The fact that a difference of less than two per cent. between the legal value of silver as regards gold and its commercial value as referred to the same standard, should Lave been all-powerful to prevent the use of silver in the last century, when means of communication were so limited and facilities for transacting business, especially financial business, so poor compared with what now exist this fact, we say, should be snflicient to prove to advocates of the hi-metallic theory that the complete success of their scheme is hopeless, Yowards the end of the last century, some limits were placed on the sum which could be paid in debased chin, but coin of fall weight, as issued from the mint, was still legal tender to any amount, and it was not till 1816 that a gold standard, pare and simple, was adopted. From and after that date, debts could only be paid in gold, By gold, in this sense, is meant what is sometimes called standard gold and sometimes twenty-two carat gold, but what is in fact a metal of which eleven-twelfths are gold and once twelfth is some inferior metal, generally copper. Any one in England possessing a quantity of such metal may take it to the Mint and have it coined into sovereigns free of charge. The weight of sovereigns returned to him will be exactly equal to the weight of standard gold handed in, and no charge whatever is made for the work. In older times a charge was made in England, and a charge is still made in other ud there seems to be much in favour of a small charge to cover expenses, but as a matter of fact, coinage of gold in England is free. It is usual to say in England that the mint price of standard gold is £3.17.104 peror., that istosay anonuce of standard gold weighs a little more than three sovereigns and seven-eighths' of a sovereign, As a matter of fact, coinage takes some considerable time, and the Bank of England is ready at any moment to take any amount of standard gold and baud over bank notes at the rate of £3.17.9 per oz., and as bullion dealers find it more convenient to submit to this loss of three-half pence per oz. than to sacrifice interest by waiting for the mint to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.